Definition of Speaking Skill

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1.10 Speaking Skill

2.4.1 Definition of Speaking Skill

There are four basic skills in language. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those four skills are connected smoothly, but they are different. They must be all acquired to be fluent in language. People may have a good ability to certain skills and poor to another. Richards 2001: 58 states language is primarily speech in audiolingual theory, but speaking skills are themselves dependent on the ability to accurately perceive and produce the major phonological features of the target langauge, fluency in the use of the key grammatical patterns in the language, and knwoledge of sufficient vocabulary to use with these patterns. Based on the above principle, we have to combine the grammar, vocabulary, intonation, speech acts and other aspects in order to be understood by our interlocutor and reach the goal of communication. For the beginners of language, it is hard to do. They seem to have a kind of dirty speaking because they just speak whatever they want without good grammatical stuctures as long as the interlocutor understands what the speaker means. Speaking is the productive skill in oral mode. It is like the other skills, it is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. For many years, people teach speaking by having students’ sentence repetition and recite memorized textbook dialogues Nunan, 2003: 49. Starting from elementary to senior high school, most of the teachers use it as a basic materials to teach their students. Audio-lingual metod or audiolingual repetition 20 drills were designed to familiarize students with the sounds and structural patterns of target language. Hopefully, people can learn to speak by practicing grammatical structures and then later using them in a conversation. Although speaking is totally natural, speaking in a language other than our own is anything but simple. Language generated by the learner in speech or writing is referred to as productive. Meanwhile, language directed at the learner in reading or listening is called receptive. Thus, speaking is the productive oral skill. It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. This statement is agreed by Lier as cited by Nunan 2003: 48: spoken language differs in many significant ways. Here are some key contrast: Table 2.1. The Differences between Spoken and Written Language Spoken Language Written Language Auditory Temporary; immediate reception Prosody rhythm, stress intonation Immediate Feedback Planning and editing limited by channel Visual Permanent; delayed reception Punctuation Delayed or no Feedback Unlimited Planning, ediitng, revision Nunan 2003. Speaking has several meanings, like Bygate 1987: viii describes that speaking is a skill deserves attention every but as much as literary skills, in both first and second language. There are two ways in which speaking can be seen as a skill, they are as follow: 21 1. Motor perceptive skills This includes articulating, perceiving, recalling in the correct order sounds and structure of the language. 2. Interaction skills It covers making decision about communication, such as what to say, how to say and whatsoever to develop it, in accordance with one’s intentions, while maintaining the desired relation with others.

2.4.2 Speaking As a Skill